Nelson & His World

I have just been reading, painfully, the on-line edition of Clarke & M'Arthur. (If anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas, a first edition, please, in a proper hold-in-your-hands book.) I know that it is rather suspect not least because letters were edited or altered for publication. I also recall reading 'somewhere' that acquaintances of Nelson who were consulted by C& M recalled with hilarity their inventions offered for inclusion. Roger Knight refused to mention any incident cited by C&M in his own monumental work.

One incident that intrigued me was the story on page 41 of C&M about the 'Monitary Lizard', a most venomous reptile that warned of the advance of other dangerous creatures, that passed over Nelson's face when he was asleep without harming him, as a result of which he was regarded as a superior being by the native tribesmen they had with them. I have never seen this mentioned in any other biography and it does have the ring of a 'tall tale'. Could there be any truth in the story, though?

Anna,

This incident, I presume, was supposed to have happened during the San Juan expedition? I have read some accounts of this, including Tom Pocock's 'Young Nelson in the West Indies', but I don't recall mention of this in any of them either. Of course it may have just have slipped my mind, but since it is C and M 'tall tale' sounds about right. Actually, how anything that large can pass over one's face without waking them up, seems somehow unbelievable!

As for reading texts on line, especially in depth ones, give me a book any time!